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A History Blog from St. Martin’s PressTue, 06 Dec 2016 15:54:33 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.3Asimov Mathematics and the Collapse of Empirehttp://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/asimov-empire/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/asimov-empire/#respondTue, 06 Dec 2016 15:53:38 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4791by Brian Clegg If there’s one lesson that we have learned from recent shock political results, whether it’s Brexit in the UK, or the election of Donald Trump to the White House, it is that we can’t trust the polls,…

If there’s one lesson that we have learned from recent shock political results, whether it’s Brexit in the UK, or the election of Donald Trump to the White House, it is that we can’t trust the polls, which failed miserably to predict the outcomes. This is the kind of issue that is at the heart of my recent book Are Numbers Real?, exploring the relationship between mathematics and reality. Science has come increasingly to depend on math, to the extent that much modern physics is driven by it – yet mathematics and reality are very different things, especially when dealing with as complex a system as a country’s electorate.

Dr. Isaac Asimov. By Phillip Leonian from New York World-Telegram & Sun. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

To make their numbers work, physicists often apply extremely broad simplifications. This leads to the old scientist’s joke: a dietician, a geneticist and a physicist are arguing about how to produce the perfect racehorse. The dietician says “We just need to develop a perfect diet for physical stamina.” This makes the geneticist shake her head. “No,” she says, “the important thing is to breed selectively for the essential characteristics of speed.” The physicist frowns and turns to a whiteboard. “Let’s assume the racehorse is a sphere.”

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Asimov’s Inspiration

The failure of the pollsters would have saddened that doyen of American science fiction writers, the late, great Isaac Asimov. Asimov based his Foundation series of stories on a fictional concept called psychohistory. This involved an extremely powerful form of statistics, which was able to predict the development of the culture it studies, down to individual events. In Asimov’s Foundation series, a team of mathematicians led by Hari Seldon lays out a broad brush prediction of the way that the galactic Empire would fall apart, leaving recorded messages that predict future events through the centuries. In the books, this process fails when a mutant somehow falls outside the system’s predictive ability. But in reality there was never any need for such a far-fetched reason for the system fail. Psychohistory could never work in practice.

Animated map of the Roman Republic and Empire between 510 BCE and 530 CE. Republic (Red), Empire (Purple), Eastern/Byzantine Empire (Yellow) and Western Empire (Blue). By Roke. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

Asimov was inspired in his vision of a collapsing empire by the eighteenth century book The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. This seemed to show that specific drivers would inevitably result in an empire falling apart. In particular, Asimov picked up on the way that the Roman empire increasingly suffered as a result of the low speed of communication, making a widespread physical empire incapable of responding quickly enough to central control. Without good communication an empire was on borrowed time.

Was Communication the Reason the Roman Empire Fell?

In Roman times, the fastest mechanism for transmitting a complex message across land had been the horseback messenger, whether carrying a verbal communication in his head or a written document in his saddlebag. Where water intervened, the transmission rate for information came down to the speed of a boat. A message from just a few hundred miles away could take days – over continental distances, the lag would be weeks or even months.

Asimov saw that the same problems would apply in a galactic Empire where, however good the technology, the time delays on communication between the imperial capital and outposts would inevitably lead to the same kind of issues that Rome had faced. Local challenges on distant planets could not be fed back to the center quickly enough to respond. The result, inevitably, was an outbreak of rebellions, splintering of the empire and decline. But the difference in Asimov’s imagined version was the existence of psychohistory, which its proponents hoped would enable the transition through the inevitable period of savagery (inevitable to Asimov’s eyes, based on Gibbon’s pattern) to be made far quicker than without the math-based intervention. This saving mechanism was, strangely, inspired by our understanding of gasses.

The Complexity of Random Events

Physicists know that, while we can’t predict what individual molecules will do, we can take a statistical view across many of them to see how a gas will behave. Even though there are psychological parallels with this statistical mechanics in “group think” or mob behavior, in practice, we can’t apply the same kind of predictive statistics we use in forecasting the behavior of a collection of gas molecules to groups of people. Even so, Asimov extended the concept even further to a whole fictional mathematics of behavior.

In reality, anyone trying to use statistics to predict the future of anything as complex as a civilization comes up against the same problem faced by those trying to make long term forecasts of the weather. The system is far too complex to make meaningful predictions. It is highly chaotic in the mathematical sense. This means that small changes in starting conditions – typically, in the case of a population of humans, caused by the actions of individuals – have huge impact in their outcomes.

This mathematical concept of chaos is very different from the association the word has in everyday use. Usually, when say something is chaotic, it is random and out of control. Mathematically, though, chaotic systems are perfectly systematic and ordered. It’s just that the way the system works results in such unexpected swings and changes that it is impossible to make consistent, sensible predictions beyond a very close time horizon.

Applying Asimov’s Principles Today

Chaos occurs because different parts of a system don’t function independently, but influence each other. If you have a number of different factors, influencing a range of objects, all of which interact, prediction is a nightmare. Even simple systems can be chaotic. As Newton discovered, put just three astronomical bodies in space and all you can hope to do is approximate to a prediction of their behavior. Now think of trying to predict the actions of millions of people, many of them interacting and producing complex feedback loops, and it’s amazing that polls ever worked in the first place.

The reason that pollsters often got away with apparently making useful predictions in the past, is that they relied on the same level of simplification as the physicist trying to improve the racehorse. Groups of voters were amalgamated on crude social and political lines to make it possible to identify a representative sample and magnify that result to predict the decision of a nation. However, a combination of new communications channels, breaking through the old, physical social networks, and the increasing divide between a mass of the electorate that rarely voted and what were perceived as metropolitan elites with no understanding of ordinary voters’ lives, meant that simplifications used by the pollsters no longer operated.

Will the American Empire Follow the Romans?

Do the recent political upheavals mean that what many regard as the American Empire will collapse as Asimov portrayed in his books? Not necessarily. We have, if anything, the opposite problem to that faced by Rome and Asimov’s galactic empire. In our world, communications happen far faster than ever before. So fast that our traditional mechanisms of monitoring and assessing behavior have simply been left behind. Mathematics will always be essential in predicting future outcomes. But the recent results have shown that without a better understanding of people, and the variables in play in today’s world, our mathematical models can prove useless.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/asimov-empire/feed/0Takeo Yoshikawa: The Japanese Spy at Pearl Harborhttp://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/takeo-yoshikawa/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/takeo-yoshikawa/#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 15:41:59 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4731by Nicholas Best When the task force slipped out of port on December 5, 1941, a man calling himself Tadashi Morimura watched from a few hundred yards away to the north. He was careful not to write anything down, but…

When the task force slipped out of port on December 5, 1941, a man calling himself Tadashi Morimura watched from a few hundred yards away to the north. He was careful not to write anything down, but he missed nothing as Lexington put to sea. With the help of the reference book Jane’s Fighting Ships and a good memory, he knew exactly which American warships were leaving harbor. It was his job to record their movements and report them to his spymasters in Tokyo.

Morimura had been in Oahu since the end of March. Ostensibly he was a junior official at the Japanese consulate on Nuuana Avenue. In reality he was a spy, Admiral Yamamoto’s principal eyes and ears on the island. His consular duties were simply a cover for his clandestine activities as Japan prepared for war with the United States.

Morimura’s real name was Takeo Yoshikawa. He was twenty- nine years old, a former trainee pilot with the Japanese navy. Invalided out of the service with a stomach condition, he had been recruited as a spy instead and posted to the consulate in Honolulu. He had spent the last eight months familiarizing himself with every army, navy, and air force base in the Hawaiian Islands. Ready for the day that the information would be needed when war became inevitable.

Takeo Yoshikawa Tours the Island

Takeo Yoshikawa’s colleagues at the consulate knew nothing of his spying activities. To them he was just an idle young man, often too lazy to return to work after lunch. He preferred to spend his afternoons driving around the islands instead, like a tourist.

Takeo Yoshikawa also spent hours lazing at a Japanese tea house on Alewa Heights. The place was staffed with pretty girls and had a wonderful view of Pearl Harbor from the front windows. Every thing from Ford Island to Hickam Field was plainly visible from the heights. Everything was laid out in a panorama below. The tea house even kept a telescope for guests wanting to have a closer look.

Sometimes Takeo Yoshikawa took a girl with him and went for a trip on a glass-bottomed boat. He pretended to enjoy the underwater tour of Kanoehe Bay, on the other side of the island, which the Americans were said to be considering as an alternative anchorage for their fleet. In reality he estimated the depth of the bay at various points. He concluded that it was too shallow for large warships.

A Flight with Geisha Girls Reveals Hawaii’s Runways

He also attended an open day at Wheeler Airbase, noting that three aircraft could take off simultaneously, which meant that fighter squadrons could become airborne relatively quickly. He twice took a tourist flight over Oahu with a geisha girl as cover. Takeo Yoshikawa used the first flight to note the direction of the runways at Wheeler and estimate the number of aircraft there by counting the quantity of hangars.

His second flight, on October 13, had confirmed that the Americans were not dispersing their fleet around other anchorages on the island, as Tokyo had speculated. Fearing sabotage from the local Japanese population, the Americans preferred to keep their ships, like their aircraft, close together in one place for better protection.

Takeo Yoshikawa’s information wasn’t always accurate, but he was an effective spy nonetheless. While monitoring U.S. Navy messages in Tokyo, he had received a personal letter of thanks from Adolf Hitler for alerting the Germans to a British troop convoy that subsequently suffered heavy losses. He was always careful not to arouse suspicion in his work or do anything to draw the attention of the authorities to himself. Nevertheless the Americans had been onto him from the start. He was clearly too young for his diplomatic responsibilities at the consulate. There was no Tadashi Morimura listed in the Japanese diplomatic register. As a consequence the Americans had tailed him for months. However they had never managed to pin anything on him that could lead to his arrest and expulsion from the islands.

Takeo Yoshikawa Knew Nothing of the Japanese Plan

Takeo Yoshikawa knew nothing of the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor as he watched Lexington’s departure that morning. However it did not take a genius to put two and two together. On September 24 the Japanese Foreign Ministry had asked the Honolulu consulate to divide the waters of the harbor into five separate areas and report back on the number and location of warships in each. The ministry had been particularly interested to know the number of battleships moored together in the stream, side by side.

The USS Arizona during the attack.. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

Much more recently, on December 2, Tokyo had sent this message: In view of the present situation, the presence in port of warships, airplane carriers, and cruisers is of utmost importance. Hereafter, to the utmost of your ability, let me know day by day. Wire me in each case whether or not there are any observation balloons above Pearl Harbor or if there are any indications that they will be sent up. Also advise me whether or not the warships are provided with anti-mine nets. It could hardly have been clearer that an attack on Pearl Harbor was being considered, even if no decision had been taken.

Takeo Yoshikawa Watches Lexington’s Departure

Knowing what might be about to happen, Takeo Yoshikawa watched Lexington’s departure with considerable concern. There were now no aircraft carriers left in harbor as the weekend approached. It was normal for two if not all three of the U.S. Pacific carriers to be in Pearl Harbor for the weekend. Most unusually, however, all three were now at sea, at large somewhere on a very wide ocean.

Takeo Yoshikawa noted Nevada’s arrival after the task force’s departure. He stayed to watch as two more battleships arrived later in the day, routinely returning to base for the weekend. Then he hurried back to Honolulu and went to transmit the details to Tokyo.

NICHOLAS BEST grew up in Kenya, served in the Grenadier Guards, and worked as a journalist before becoming a full-time author. His many other books include Five Days That Shocked the World, Happy Valley: The Story of the English in Kenya, Tennis and the Masai, and The Greatest Day in History. For ten years he was a fiction critic for the Financial Times and has written for countless other publications. He currently lives in Cambridge, England.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/takeo-yoshikawa/feed/0The Battle of Khe Sanh, January 21 – April 8, 1968http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/khe-sanh/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/khe-sanh/#respondWed, 30 Nov 2016 19:00:18 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4758Editor: Michael Spilling and Consultant Editor: Chris McNab Khe Sanh combat base, built on a hilltop located 10 km from the Laotian border, was the westernmost in a line of Allied defenses south of the DMZ designed to prevent communist…

Khe Sanh combat base, built on a hilltop located 10 km from the Laotian border, was the westernmost in a line of Allied defenses south of the DMZ designed to prevent communist infiltration into South Vietnam. By 1968, Khe Sanh combat base was occupied by 3000 US Marines of the 3rd Marine Division. While a further 3000 Marines were stationed on four nearby hilltop positions surrounding the base. These positions had been the subject of heavy fighting during 1967. That fighting had demonstrated a sizable enemy buildup in the area. It prompted Gen William Westmoreland to believe that Khe Sanh was tenable even in the face of a heavy enemy siege. This was especially important given that it housed a runway capable of landing C-130s.

An Army 175mm M107 at Camp Carroll provides fire support for ground forces. By United States Army Heritage and Education Center. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

North Vietnamese Forces Launch Their Attack

As part of their planning for the Tet Offensive, North Vietnamese forces began to stream into the area around Khe Sanh in November 1967. They eventually totaled as many as 40,000 troops. Most were from the 325th Division and 320th Division, cutting US ground contact with the Marines at Khe Sanh. Communist planners, led by Gen Vo Nguyen Giap, hoped by attacking Khe Sanh to draw American attention from the cities of South Vietnam. They felt these were the real targets of the coming Tet Offensive. On 21 January 1967, North Vietnamese forces simultaneously attacked two of the outlying US Marine hilltop positions. They launched a massive artillery strike on Khe Sanh combat base, opening the siege.

Fearing a defeat reminiscent of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, President Lyndon Johnson kept a close eye on the fighting. He continued to receive hourly reports and even having a mock-up of Khe Sanh constructed in the basement of the White House. He hoped to drawn North Vietnamese forces into what might prove to be a climactic battle. Westmoreland ordered the US Marines to hold firm and launched Operation Niagara. This was a series of bombing strikes on the North Vietnamese troop concentrations around Khe Sanh.

Tactical bombers flew more than 16,000 sorties in defense of the US Marines. They delivered more than 31,000 tons of bombs. While B-52 Arc Light strikes delivered nearly 60,000 tons of bombs. This made Operation Niagara one of the heaviest bombing campaigns in the history of warfare.

The North Vietnamese close in on Khe Sanh

At the beginning of February 1968, as the Tet Offensive raged throughout South Vietnam, fighting around the combat base intensified.

On 7 February, a North Vietnamese assault involving 12 tanks overran the Special Forces camp at Lang Vei, west of Khe Sanh on Route 9. Bitter fighting also took place on the Marine hilltop outposts surrounding Khe Sanh, with Hill 861 being overrun by mid-February. By late February, the North Vietnamese artillery barrage on the combat base strengthened. On 29 February elements of the North Vietnamese 304th Division stormed the base, but were driven off with major losses. Under heavy pressure from the air, and with the failure of the wider Tet Offensive, North Vietnamese forces began to withdraw from the Khe Sanh area in early March.

By early April, US forces in Operation Pegasus reopened ground communication with Khe Sanh and the siege was at an end. During the fighting, the Marines lost 205 killed and 1600 wounded. Then a further 97 US and 33 South Vietnamese were killed in the relief efforts. The North Vietnamese lost as many as 15,000 casualties during the siege of Khe Sanh.

Dr. Chris McNab is the editor of AMERICAN BATTLES & CAMPAIGNS: A Chronicle, from 1622-Present and is an experienced specialist in wilderness and urban survival techniques. He has published over 20 books including: How to Survive Anything, Anywhere. An encyclopedia of military and civilian survival techniques for all environments. Special Forces Endurance Techniques, First Aid Survival Manual, and The Handbook of Urban Survival.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/khe-sanh/feed/0Felix Yusupov and the Murder of Rasputinhttp://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/felix-yusupov/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/felix-yusupov/#respondTue, 29 Nov 2016 16:19:32 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4765by Douglas Smith The Yusupov household was staunchly anti-Rasputin. Felix Yusupov’s father could not bear even to hear the name spoken in his presence, and his mother let the empress know of her hatred for the man, which poisoned their…

The Yusupov household was staunchly anti-Rasputin. Felix Yusupov’s father could not bear even to hear the name spoken in his presence, and his mother let the empress know of her hatred for the man, which poisoned their relations for good. Felix’s attitude toward Rasputin was profoundly shaped by his parents, and by Ella, too, and so it is something of a surprise that he seems to have sought out an introduction to Rasputin. The woman who brought the two men together was a dear friend by the name of Munya Golovina.

The Yusupov family in 1912: Prince Felix, Prince Nicholas, Count Felix Felixovich Sumarkov-Elston and Princess Zinaida. By Unknown. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

Golovina had known Felix and his brother for years, and she had harbored a secret love for the older Yusupov at the time of his death. In her memoirs, Golovina writes how the three of them, always ready for new experiences, went one dark day late in 1907 to visit a mysterious new magician-occultist by the name of Chinsky. Disguised to hide their identities, they visited Chinsky’s small studio and had him tell their fortunes. He told them they stood on the precipice of a large catastrophe,but they could avoid it if they would return and permit him (for a fee) to instruct them in the ways of the occult. Nikolai was thrilled by Chinsky and they continued their visits, telling Chinsky of their lives, passions, desires, and fears, and permitting him to offer guidance and instruction.

Munya was terribly grieved by Nikolai’s death. She asked her mother, Lyubov Golovina, to take her to Italy so she could try to put it behind her. Upon her return to Moscow, Felix picked her up in his automobile and drove to Arkhangelskoe, where Munya prayed over Nikolai’s grave. She continued her engagement with spiritualism and the occult, seeking answers to her suffering. She later wrote that she had made great strides in her mental powers: by asking herself questions and then concentrating all the energy of her mind on the answers, she was able to practice the art of “automatic writing,” words mysteriously appearing on the page with no one holding the pen. Still, she was not fulfilled, her life nothing but pain and confusion. She considered entering Ella’s convent.

It was then she heard from her cousin Alexandra (Sana) Taneeva, the sister of Anna Vyrubova, about a mysterious holy pilgrim who had come to Petersburg and won the trust of the emperor and empress. She went to Sana’s one day to meet him. From the moment she saw him Munya was moved by his person. He seemed to her “full of mystery and drawn to the supernatural.” It was crowded, and so Munya was not able to tell him of her plight, but he put his hand on her head and told her she would be one of the chosen and that he would see her again.

Munya was distraught. She needed his advice on whether or not to join the convent, and so she prayed God to lead her to him. Her prayers were answered. She next saw him with a group of followers in the Kazan Cathedral. She went up and spoke to Rasputin, and together they left the cathedral for the Golovins’ home so he could meet her mother and discuss her problems. “For me this was a door into a new world,” Munya confessed, “I found my spiritual guide in the person of a Siberian peasant who already in our first conversation amazed me with his insight. The authoritative look of his gray eyes equaled, in their power, that of his inner will that utterly exposed people before him. It was for me a great day.”

Rasputin made Munya promise to stop attending spiritualist séances and practicing automatic writing under the influence of spirits. He told her these things they called spirits were in fact demons, tricking us into thinking we were in contact with the souls of our departed loved ones. Only those rare persons with pure souls free of the sins of the world could make contact with these true spirits, Rasputin told Munya and her mother, and for others to even try was to engage in sin. As for joining Ella’s convent, here again Rasputin instructed her to stop and follow his advice:

“The vows we make to the Lord are not always to be found in convents [. . .] they are in fulfilling our daily duties, in the joy of life, such as loving to praise God and in experiencing the happiness of feeling His presence, the secret buried essence of which is to always keep your heart open to every good deed, and to have an affectionate word for everyone.” From that day Munya and Lyubov remained devoted to Rasputin for the rest of their lives.

In a later draft of her memoirs written many years after this description, Munya added a few more words that she claimed Rasputin had spoken that day: “She will bring me greater evil than all the others, for she will be the cause of an inevitable event.” This event was, of course, his own murder. It seems unlikely that Rasputin uttered such words that day. What Munya was expressing here was not Rasputin’s prophecy, but her own guilty conscience for having introduced Yusupov to Rasputin. Having been cured of her existential anguish by Rasputin, Munya desperately wanted to introduce him to Felix to help him cope with the loss of his brother.

Felix Yusupov interest in Rasputin

As for Felix, he told investigators after Rasputin’s murder that “Rasputin interested me as a personality, famous to all at the time and having enormous hypnotic powers.” He mentioned nothing about the trauma of his brother’s death (involvement in which some suspected him), but only certain undisclosed “ailments,” and so with Munya’s insistence, he agreed to meet. When and where this happened is not clear. Felix stated more than once that he met Rasputin at the Petersburg home of the Golovins, but his testimony about when this was varies, from Christmas 1909 to as late as 1911, a date also mentioned by Munya in her testimony to the police following Rasputin’s murder.

Felix wrote in his memoirs that he was immediately irritated by Rasputin’s “self-assurance.” This seems quite plausible. The aristocratic Felix would have expected nothing less than subservience from a peasant, something, however, foreign to Rasputin’s character. In his first lines on Rasputin, Yusupov lies, claiming he spotted on his head a “great scar,” which he writes was the result of a wound “received during one of his highway robberies in Siberia.” Rasputin’s face, so Yusupov said, was “low, common,” his features “coarse,” his eyes “shifty,” his overall impression that of a “lascivious, malicious satyr.” To read Yusupov on Rasputin is to be presented with a man more animal than human.

Munya told police after Rasputin’s murder that following this initial meeting the two men met about twice a year at her home for the next several years. Yusupov visited Rasputin only on a few occasions, and then always together with Munya. They would take the back stairs to avoid the Okhrana agents, as Rasputin recommended, and Yusupov would dress in such a way so as not to attract attention. Maria Rasputina confirmed the secrecy that Yusupov adopted when visiting her father. She found him “lithe and elegant, and with rather affected manners,” but never imagined he was capable of murder.

Felix Yusupov and Irina in 1915. By Boissonnas et Eggler. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

Given the unreliability of Yusupov’s memoirs (more on this later),the letters Munya wrote to Yusupov about Rasputin provide the best evidence on the men’s relations. It is clear that Munya not only helped make the introduction, but, as Rasputin’s disciple, was intent on opening Felix’s eyes to what she believed to be the truth about him and not the gossip he had heard so much of at home and in society. On 20 August 1910 she wrote:

Dear Felix Felixovich
I am writing you to ask that you don’t show anyone that piece of paper I handed you at Ala’s [Alexandra Pistolkors]. Your new acquaintance visited us today and requested this, and I, too, think that the fewer conversations about him the better. I do so want to know your opinion of him; I think you were not able to take away an especially good impression, for this you need a special mood and then you get used to a different way of relating to his words, which always imply something spiritual and do not relate to our ordinary, everyday life. If you have understood this then I’m terribly happy, happy too
that you saw him, and I believe that it was good for you and for your life, just don’t abuse him, and if he is not pleasing to you—try to forget it.

In early September 1910, as Yusupov was preparing to return to Oxford, where he had been studying since the previous year, Munya wrote to him from her family’s home in the countryside:

Upon arriving home I found your letter that was forwarded to me from Petersburg. Having read what you wrote about our friend, I recalled that he had written a few words on the back of your photograph that was among a series of others I showed him and he wrote on the back of several of them. He wrote you something very nice, and I do not even have the right to hold on to something for so long that belongs to you. [. . .] I was not in the right temper for prayer without our friend here—in his presence I pray so joyfully, so easily, and I was sad that he was not here and that we did not meet him and pray together at least once, I had no one to share my impressions with even though the people taking part in this religious experience were spiritually together.

Grigori Rasputin (1864-1916). By Unknown. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

The photograph and Rasputin’s inscription are reproduced in Yusupov’s memoirs. Felix, standing alone on an empty city street, dressed nattily in a dark suit and tie, sporting a straw hat and walking stick, a small black case in his left hand, looks every inch the wealthy, polished, and confident young aristocrat about town. On the back, in his usual scrawl, Rasputin has written: “Bless you my child live not in delusion but in the joy of pleasure and light Grigory.” Typical of Rasputin’s utterings, the precise meaning is vague, but his use of the word zabluzhdenie delusion or error—might refer to Yusupov’s sexual habits that Rasputin would have deemed sinful.

From Munya’s letters it is clear Felix was struggling over just what to think of Rasputin. From his family he had only heard the worst rumors, but here was his old friend insisting these were all lies, that he was not the man people thought. Munya loved them both, and she was adamant that she make them love each other. Felix was being torn in two directions. Rasputin sensed Yusupov was wary, if not worse, and Munya did her best to try to encourage a friendship between them:

“Our Friend has departed,” she wrote while away in the Crimea, “he knows, but he too is not pleased that you did not tell me. I asked him to pray for you, so that all will be well for you, and he instructed me to tell you that ‘he ran from society, and then crept right back in,’ but I try to convince him and others that you are a very, very kind and good person, so do prove this and come soon—Yalta is not far from us. May God protect you. Maria.”

Sometime around the middle of June 1911, Munya, while visiting Boulogne sur Seine, wrote a long, angry letter to Felix in England about how he had been saying mean things about her and Rasputin to others:

How could you say so many unjust and cruel things! I read your letter several times in order to understand under what sort of influence you wrote it.

Some day, another time, I do hope we will talk all this over in detail, and for now I will only say that you have accused me for no good reason—I have done nothing wrong. If you think that I am ruining myself as a result of my acquaintance with G. Yef. and my respect for him as a man of prayer and fellow believer—then so much the worse for you; I cannot change my opinion of a man whom I know just because of some second-hand gossip, for if I were to believe in all the things people say then I’d be forced to be disappointed with you! But I only want to always believe my inner feeling and that feeling tells me that G. Yef. pleases God.

As for my making myself into his slave, that is not true. Everything I do I do it consciously and voluntarily. One needs a leader to grow spiritually, but this does not mean to enslave oneself,but only to recognize his spiritual experience as greater than yours, maintaining for yourself the freedom to perfect yourself on your own and to analyze your own feelings. He wrote me recently and asked me to tell you not to forget him when you are not well, and together with him to think about Our Creator and then all will be well! Don’t sin against him any more, I don’t like hearing from you those words I hear others speak. [. . .]

I am glad you wrote me everything that you have been thinking, but it hurt me that youthink that way. Those are not your ideas, at least not those that you had when you visited me last. You yourself wanted to see him, you wrote that, and even said that you were going to convince your mother to meet him, and were disturbed by the lies that pursued him and now such a sudden change! From all this I might think you don’t even know him!

What great significance you give to society! Do you really still not know that today it despises you, tomorrow extols you, and is always happy to judge anyone no matter how lofty their position! What disappoints me most of all, of course, is the attitude of your mother to everything that has happened, it’s so painful, nonetheless, I ask myself whether your mother is angry only because you met G. Yef. or is it your friendship with me (what a good friendship!) that she finds so unpleasant? I’d like to get to the bottom of all this, to know what I’m being accused of, why you were not allowed to see or speak with me? Can it really be you never do the least thing that might upset your mother were she to find out? [. . .]

I simply can’t believe that you so easily gave up your own view as an adult and did not defend me, and then so mercilessly judged me your very self [. . .] It’s natural for you to love your mother more than anyone on earth, especially such a mother as yours, but are you expected to do something nasty, evil, against your own nature out of this love for her? I myself love and respect your mother too much to allow the thought that she would consciously insult someone, particularly me, toward whom she was always so kind, even after she learned of my acquaintance with G. Yef. [. . .] I worship my mother, but if it seems to me that she is mistaken, I will use all the power of my love to convince her to change.

Munya never gave up trying to convince Felix of Rasputin’s goodness and to reconcile the two men closest to her heart. Sometime after the above letter she wrote again to Felix Yusupov:

Why is it that when whole masses practice spiritualism, and our entire youth makes use of every method to over excite their nerves, ruin their health and soul, no one’s concerned, and the only danger people are able to see is one poorly educated man reminding them about God, about the spiritual life of prayer, about reading more religious books, about going to church and keeping the fasts all while not hating anyone, and gathering to talk more often about God and the life to come. For me all the rest is so ridiculous that I don’t even understand it, and I’ll forever grieve should people’s empty gossip have any influence on you and should you believe it [. . .]

God bless you, I am sending you a little book in which I wanted to copy down for you the thoughts of your “new acquaintance” and one letter, sent to you, that I have rewritten; I’ve not managed to rewrite all the rest. Read it all and write to me your opinion—beneath the naive form are profound thoughts and much truth.

Prince Felix Yusupov. More details Prince Felix Yusupov. By Unknown. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

On 3 October 1913, Munya wrote Yusupov from her room in Yalta’s Hotel Russia:

My Dear Felix Felixovich,
I would not have written to you for anything in the world if it weren’t for our friend who wants me to send you his letter, and I simply cannot ignore or disobey him, all the more so since you, perhaps, might want to see him and take advantage of his short stay in Yalta? He is leaving soon [. . .]

Munya’s opening words suggest the anger and hurt she was feeling toward Felix after years of failing to get him to see Rasputin as she did. As for Rasputin, it seems he had not given up on trying to win Felix over. What was it about the prince that continued to interest him? Rasputin, after all, had the trust of not just many other well-born and rich Russians, he had the love of the royal family, so what would Yusupov’s friendship have meant to him?

To this question there are no clear answers, but Rasputin’s good disposition toward Yusupov does help explain why he would later embrace the man who would kill him after he had appeared to have changed his opinion of Rasputin and come back into his life. Munya never did manage to turn the two men into honest friends. Felix met Rasputin a few more times after 1913, but then broke off all contact with him in January 1915.

He would not meet Rasputin again until he had decided he was going to kill him.

Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator and the author of Former People and other books on Russia. Before becoming a historian, he worked for the U.S. State Department in the Soviet Union and as a Russian affairs analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/felix-yusupov/feed/0The Battle of Hue, January 30 – March 3, 1969http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/hue/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/hue/#respondTue, 22 Nov 2016 16:35:29 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4748Editor: Michael Spilling and Consultant Editor: Chris McNab As part of the Tet Offensive of 1968, the VC and North Vietnamese dedicated two regiments to the seizure of the imperial capital of Hue. On the morning of 31 January 1968,…

As part of the Tet Offensive of 1968, the VC and North Vietnamese dedicated two regiments to the seizure of the imperial capital of Hue. On the morning of 31 January 1968, the North Vietnamese 6th Regiment attacked the walled citadel north of the Perfume River. The 4th Regiment attacked the new city south of the river.

U.S marines wounded during the battle. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

Hue was defended by minimal South Vietnamese and US forces. They were fixated more on the fighting in the countryside. In the initial fighting, the communists seized most of the city. All except for the headquarters of Gen Ngo Quang Truong’s 1st ARVN Division in the citadel and a small MACV compound south of the river. Numbering only a few hundred men, both outposts held out against heavy communist assaults. Initially concerned more with the fighting at nearby Khe Sanh, US and South Vietnamese commands were slow to respond to the threat and sent minimal reinforcements.

Once the threat had become clear, troops from the 1st Cavalry and the 101st Airborne worked to cut off communist supply lines outside Hue against elements of three North Vietnamese divisions that US planners had thought were engaged at Khe Sanh. In Hue, three battalions of US Marines made their way to the new city south of the Perfume river. Then nearly 11 South Vietnamese battalions fought their way into Truong’s embattled defenses in the citadel.

The South Vietnamese forces go house-to-house

When the situations both south and north of the Perfume River were secure, US and South Vietnamese forces took the offensive in a street-to-street and house-to-house urban battle. Realizing that keeping their flag above the fabled citadel and imperial palace had immense psychological value, communist forces fought tenaciously. The fighting on both fronts moved very slowly. There were very heavy losses until 12 February. This continued until South Vietnamese I Corps commander Gen Hoang Xuon Lam gave permission to use whatever firepower was necessary to clear the city. Communist forces fought with desperation. Finally resulting in artillery and air strikes leveling much of the city and the citadel to blast out communist resistance. With less organic heavy weapon support, South Vietnamese forces in the citadel were augmented by the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.

On 21 February, the 1st Cavalry Division closed off communist supply lines to Hue after heavy fighting. On 24 February, the Second Battalion, 3rd ARVN Regiment overran the southern wall of the citadel. They took down the VC flag that had been flying there for nearly a month. The next day, South Vietnamese troops recaptured the imperial palace, heralding an end to the battle. In the fighting, US forces suffered more than 200 dead, while the South Vietnamese lost nearly 400 killed. North Vietnamese and VC losses exceeded 5000 dead. More than half of the city was destroyed in the fighting, leaving 116,000 civilians homeless from a population of 140,000.

Horrifying Discoveries in Hue

After the fighting, US and South Vietnamese began to unearth mass graves in the areas of Hue that the communists had once held. Especially the Gia Hoa district outside the citadel. During their rule over Hue, the communists had swept through the city bearing lists of those who had aided the ‘puppet government’ of South Vietnam. Nearly 3000 bodies were discovered. Some estimates suggest that the communists summarily executed as many as 6000 civilians during the fighting.

Dr. Chris McNab is the editor of AMERICAN BATTLES & CAMPAIGNS: A Chronicle, from 1622-Present and is an experienced specialist in wilderness and urban survival techniques. He has published over 20 books including: How to Survive Anything, Anywhere. An encyclopedia of military and civilian survival techniques for all environments. Special Forces Endurance Techniques, First Aid Survival Manual, and The Handbook of Urban Survival.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/hue/feed/0Colonel Peter Ortiz and the Covert Marineshttp://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/colonel-peter-ortiz/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/colonel-peter-ortiz/#respondMon, 21 Nov 2016 15:19:24 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4725Michael E. Haskew Among the most compelling and least known U.S. Marine exploits of World War II is the saga of 41 intrepid Marines who served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the European Theater. The covert Marines…

Among the most compelling and least known U.S. Marine exploits of World War II is the saga of 41 intrepid Marines who served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the European Theater. The covert Marines in Europe parachuted behind enemy lines or were landed on hostile shores, conducting raids and sabotage operations and training resistance fighters to disrupt Nazi logistics.

Colonel Peter Ortiz receives his first Navy Cross from Admiral Harold R. Stark in London. Image is courtesy of the book The Marines in World War II

Among the most colorful OSS Marines was Colonel Peter Ortiz, who received two Navy Crosses for his work with the resistance in France. Ortiz, who spoke 10 languages, served from 1932 to 1937 with the French Foreign Legion and then returned to the United States, settling in Southern California and working in the film industry as a consultant on war films. With the outbreak of World War II, he reenlisted in the Foreign Legion and was captured in France by the Germans. Ortiz endured 18 months of captivity but managed to escape. Returning to the United States, he enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1942. His combat experience was noted, and Ortiz received a commission as a 2nd lieutenant.

Colonel Peter Ortiz conducted several covert operations in conjunction with the British Special Operations Executive and later under the auspices of the OSS. He was seriously wounded in North Africa, and during his recovery he was assigned to Operation Jedburgh, a coordinated British–American effort to lead resistance fighters across Europe in operations against the Nazis.

Colonel Peter Ortiz a Fearless Marine

Accounts relate that Colonel Peter Ortiz was fearless. One tale relates that he walked into a bar somewhere in occupied France wearing his Marine uniform beneath a raincoat. He ordered a round of drinks for a group of German officers, dropped the raincoat to reveal the Marine uniform, pulled two pistols, and ordered the Germans to drink toasts to President Roosevelt and the U.S. Marine Corps. Years later, Ortiz said that he escaped without killing the Germans, allowing them to spread the story of the event.

In August 1944, Colonel Peter Ortiz and fellow operatives were inserted into southern France. They conducted sabotage operations for two weeks before being cornered and captured. Ortiz spent the rest of the war as a prisoner and was discharged from active duty in 1946. He remained in the Marine Corps Reserve and retired in 1955.

He resumed his career in the film industry, working with the likes of actor John Wayne. Colonel Peter Ortiz died at the age of 74 on March 16, 1988. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

Michael E. Haskew is the editor of WWII History Magazine and the former editor of World War II Magazine . He is the author of a number of books, including THE MARINES IN WORLD WAR II. The Sniper at War and Order of Battle. Haskew is also the editor of The World War II Desk Reference with the Eisenhower Center for American Studies. He lives in Hixson, Tennessee.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/colonel-peter-ortiz/feed/0When JFK Endorsed The Ugly Americanhttp://www.thehistoryreader.com/contemporary-history/ugly-american-jfk/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/contemporary-history/ugly-american-jfk/#respondFri, 18 Nov 2016 14:31:32 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4709by Steven Watts In the crisis of masculinity that preoccupied so many in late 1950s America, a few beacons of hope pierced the gloominess. Cosmopolitan, in its 1957 special issue examining the conundrums of the modern American male, included a…

In the crisis of masculinity that preoccupied so many in late 1950s America, a few beacons of hope pierced the gloominess. Cosmopolitan, in its 1957 special issue examining the conundrums of the modern American male, included a piece titled “The Fascinators.” It presented brief sketches of thirty-five men. All men had been selected by women as particularly interesting, attractive, and compelling figures. They seemed to provide models for masculine regeneration. Near the front of the list appeared a youthful political figure with this description under his photo graph: “The tall, sandy-haired Democratic Senator from Massachusetts defeated Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in the race for the United States Senate by attending tea parties.

Jack Paar interviews Senator Kennedy on The Tonight Show in 1959. The same year of the public endorsement of The Ugly American. By ABC Television. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

The Endorsement of The Ugly American

Now thirty-nine and married to a pretty photographer, he is the author of a best-selling book, Profiles in Courage. Also he has been mentioned as the next Democratic Presidential candidate.” This same senator also signaled masculine redemption with a high profile public endorsement of The Ugly American. A popular novel that had raised such an alarm about weak, glad-handing American men and the dangerous implications for the Cold War. On January 23, 1959, he took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times. Together with several other prominent figures he praised the The Ugly American. It was, said the text, a compelling critique of “the Americans who go overseas for the various governmental agencies, their activities abroad, and the policies they are entrusted to carry out.” The senator then sent a copy of the novel to every member of the Senate.

The Crisis of Modern American Masculinity

A short time later, he wrote privately to the author Eugene Burdick. He explained that it had been “a pleasure for me to give a public endorsement of The Ugly American, which I also feel has begun to have some visible influence both in Congress and in Foggy Bottom [the State Department].” Subsequently, he gave speeches addressing “the economic gap” in underdeveloped countries and the need for “a volunteer corps” of young people who would personify the physical and personal virtues of the effective Americans praised in the novel. In the senator’s words, “Many have been discouraged at the examples that we read of ‘the ugly American.’ And I think the United States is going to have to do much better in this area if we are going to defend freedom and peace in the 1960s.”

As these episodes made clear, at least one prominent American was meeting head-on the crisis of modern American masculinity. Senator John F. Kennedy, a youthful and confident political figure with an eye on the White House, seemed to embody everything many American men felt nervous about losing in the postwar era. Physical vigor, decisive action, personal heroism, individual initiative, tough- mindedness, and abundant sex appeal.

As he geared up to run for his party’s presidential nomination in the mid-1950s, he relied upon the usual partisan boilerplate of the Democratic Party— condemning Republican reliance on the wealthy, upholding the federal government’s regulation of the economy and protection of the less affluent, advocating the need for vigorous prosecution of the Cold War— but here he differed little from his Democratic opponents such as Hubert Humphrey, Stuart Symington, Lyndon Johnson, and Adlai Stevenson. What set JFK apart was his personification of vigorous, elegant, assertive manhood. An aura of confident masculinity permeated both his persona and his campaign.

Kennedy Accepts the Democratic Party’s Nomination

Upon accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination in the summer of 1960, Kennedy revealed the essence of this appeal. In ringing tones, he proclaimed that the time had come for a new generation of leadership— new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities:

All over the world, particularly in the newer nations, young men are coming to power— men who are not bound by the traditions of the past— men who are not blinded by old fears and hates and rivalries— young men who can cast off the old slogans and delusions and suspicions. . . .

[W]e stand today on the edge of a New Frontier— the frontier of the 1960s. . . . I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. . . . [C]ourage— not complacency—is our need today— leadership, not salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously.

The President and Vice President take a leisurely stroll on the White House grounds. By Abbie Rowe – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

A Regeneration of American Masculinity

All the touchstones of the Kennedy campaign— and image— were there: youth, strength, toughness, decisiveness, courage, imagination, vigor. And woven throughout was the bright thread of “young men” moving forward to seize their historical moment. These were more than rhetorical tropes. For JFK, the picture of vigorous young men replacing a tired, unimaginative, tradition-bound generation of older males held the key to his considerable political appeal. The candidate John F. Kennedy’s stylish rendering of regenerated masculinity promised to resolve the cultural crisis of the late 1950s. It would make him a new kind of political figure and promised to make him a new kind of president.

STEVEN WATTS is an award-winning professor of history at the University of Missouri. He has been a consultant and on-screen expert for several documentaries. Appearing on PBS, the History Channel, NBC, CNBC, CBS, Bloomberg News, and Fox. He is the author of JFK and the Masculine Mystique.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/contemporary-history/ugly-american-jfk/feed/0Battle of Inchon, September 15–19, 1950http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/battle-inchon/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/battle-inchon/#respondWed, 16 Nov 2016 16:13:06 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4703Editor: Michael Spilling and Consultant Editor: Chris McNab With the North Korean invasion halted, the US X Corps, led by MGen Edward M. Almond, had the task of planning an amphibious landing in the rear of the NKPA advance. Gen…

With the North Korean invasion halted, the US X Corps, led by MGen Edward M. Almond, had the task of planning an amphibious landing in the rear of the NKPA advance. Gen MacArthur wanted to relieve pressure from LGen Walker’s Eighth Army, ROKA and UN troops at Pusan. The generals selected Inchon, a Yellow Sea port 41km west of Seoul. The vital roads and railway hubs that linked the NKPA’s troops in the south with their supply lines in the north. MacArthur’s strategy was for a surprise landing at Inchon (code-named Operation Chromite) to flank the communists and threaten to cut off their armies, even as the Eighth Army led a breakout from the Pusan Perimeter and pushed north.

The landing force included more than 8000 South Korean augmentees, as well as the 1st Marine Division and the US Army’s 7th Infantry Division, stationed in Japan. The ROKA 17th Regiment was in reserve, with no other reinforcements available in case the landing was strongly opposed. The gamble was serious. It required the UN to commit its only combat-ready reserves to an operation fraught with difficulties. McArthur’s plan roused the objections of some of his staff. Particularly the naval warfare experts of Task Force 77, who noted the Yellow Sea’s hazardous 9.1m tides, coastal sandbars and mudflats, and the difficulty of mounting a full-scale amphibious landing into an urban area with a high seawall.

The Amphibious Assault on Inchon Begins

Complicating the plan, North Korean attacks had pinned down the Eighth Army’s divisions, blunting the strength of the Pusan breakout. Walker was forced to delay his push north until after the landing force had established the Inchon beachhead. Meanwhile, informed by spies on Yonghung Do Island on the Inchon approaches, the UN task force knew it confronted an NKPA force totaling approximately 2000 men. Keystones to the area’s defenses were the fortifications on Wolmi Do Island (planned site for the landing operation’s Green Beach). US Marine Corps’ F4U Corsairs attacked with double loads of napalm (43,091kg in total), burning out the western half of the island.

On the morning of 15 September, the initial wave of a 70,000-man invasion force completed the first major amphibious assault since the World War II landing at Okinawa (1 April 1945). The Marines of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, supported by nine M26 Pershing tanks, overwhelmed Wolmi Do’s garrison of approximately 400 NKPA marines and artillerymen.

LSTs unloading at Inchon, 15 September 1950. American forces land in Inchon harbor one day after Battle of Inchon began. By US Navy. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

The UN Task Force Seizes Wolmi Do

By 08:00, the UN task force had seized Wolmi Do and the causeway connecting it to Inchon. Two other assault waves, involving 500 landing craft, carried the 1st and 5th Marine Regiments to Red and Blue Beaches on the north and south of the city. Naval artillery from the cruisers HMS Jamaica and USS Rochester battered the communists as the UN troops hit the beach. At Red Beach, 5th Marines clambered over the seawall and overcame stiff resistance to capture the high ground of Cemetery Hill and Observatory Hill. At Blue Beach, naval rockets silenced an NKPA mortar team that had destroyed one of the landing craft. Subsequently, 1st Marines seized the main road to Seoul.

A Complete Success

With the beachhead established, a major logistical operation got underway. By the seventh day, the task force had landed 53,882 people, 6629 vehicles and 25,512 tons of cargo. The battle had cost the UN 222 casualties, including 22 killed. The North Koreans, taken completely by surprise, endured more than 1350 casualties.

Dr. Chris McNab is the editor of AMERICAN BATTLES & CAMPAIGNS: A Chronicle, from 1622-Present and is an experienced specialist in wilderness and urban survival techniques. He has published over 20 books including: How to Survive Anything, Anywhere. An encyclopedia of military and civilian survival techniques for all environments. Special Forces Endurance Techniques, First Aid Survival Manual, and The Handbook of Urban Survival.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/battle-inchon/feed/0Life Inside the Theresienstadt Concentration Camphttp://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/theresienstadt/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/theresienstadt/#respondTue, 15 Nov 2016 16:54:02 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4686by David Cesarani Until the mass eviction of German Jews to Theresienstadt, the ghetto-camp had a predominantly Czech Jewish character. At the end of 1941 it accommodated 7,545 Jews from Prague and Brno. Over the next six months 26,524 Jews…

Until the mass eviction of German Jews to Theresienstadt, the ghetto-camp had a predominantly Czech Jewish character. At the end of 1941 it accommodated 7,545 Jews from Prague and Brno. Over the next six months 26,524 Jews from all over Bohemia and Moravia were squeezed into the fortress. Between July and December 1942 the number of Czech Jewish arrivals doubled again, but during that time thousands were deported through what was in effect Theresienstadt’s revolving door. They were replaced by approximately 53,000 German and 13,000 Austrian Jews, although many of them, too, were removed to the east after only a few weeks or months. From mid-1942 the internal administration as well as the external appearance and ambiance of Theresienstadt changed to reflect the demographic transformation.

Helga Weiss and her family were among the first Prague Jewish families to be forcibly replanted. Within weeks of their arrival they suffered two shocks. First, on 9 January 1942, nine young men were hanged for the apparently trivial crime of attempting to smuggle letters out of the ghetto. This atrocity was followed by news that 1,000 inhabitants were to be transported to Riga. Helga expressed the general disillusionment when she reflected, ‘We thought at least now we’re in Terezin we’d be spared any more of this.’ Instead, from then on every day was lived under the threat of deportation. The terror of removal was juxtaposed with the pleasure of meeting friends and family as transports flooded in. There were so many reunions that Weiss remarked, ‘Prague has come . . .

The beginnings of Theresienstadt

Until mid-1942, the deported Jews shared the fortress town with its indigenous inhabitants. But whereas the Czechs lived in family houses, the Jews were separated by gender and packed into the original barracks and living quarters adapted from other installations. In the Sudeten barracks fifty men lived in each room, stacked in bunks; the women in the Magdeburg barracks had slightly more space. Girls stayed with their mothers and boys with their fathers until they reached the age of twelve when youths moved into children’s homes that offered more space, better facilities, and rooms for schooling. All adults except the old and the infirm were expected to join working parties, many of which operated outside the fortress walls. The ghetto was guarded by a detail of 120–150 Czech gendarmes. The Jews rarely saw a German.

During the Czech period, Eichmann and his deputy Siegfried Seidl, who was responsible for running the ghetto on a day-to-day basis, appointed Jacob Edelstein as the Elder, with Otto Zucker as his deputy. Both men were Zionists with years of public service behind them. They presided over a council of thirteen elders who supervised several departments covering administration, building and maintenance, finance, labor and economic matters, and public heath. An ‘Ordnungswache’, or Order Watch, patrolled the streets and escorted Jews in and out of the ghetto confines. Crucially, the internal administration was responsible for maintaining a registry of all the residents and selected who would leave when the Germans ordained a deportation. The actual deportation lists were compiled by the Transport Committee. Since it was always the target of intense lobbying, during the days and hours before a deportation an Appeals Committee examined claims for exemption.

Norbert Troller Redesigns Theresienstadt

On the surface, the categories were clearly set out by the Germans in guidelines issued to the council on 5 March 1942. Families with young children were not to be broken up. Men with decorations for military service or severe war wounds were exempted. Anyone who was sick, over the age of sixty-five years, or in a mixed marriage was not to be included. Anyone with foreign nationality (except Poles, Soviet citizens and people from Luxembourg) was held back. Finally, anyone on the first two transports from Prague was privileged; this included many who staffed the internal administration. Outside these formal categories there were many grounds for appealing and lobbying.

Czech composer Rafael Schachter. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

Norbert Troller, a forty-six-year-old architect from Brno and veteran of the Great War, was deported to Theresienstadt in March 1942 after a spell of forced labor in a factory. On arrival he was allocated a bunk in the Sudeten barracks and commenced three weeks of manual work, as was customary for newcomers.

Troller’s Commitment

Then he was assigned to the technical department, where he designed living quarters for the inmates and also the SS. Troller quickly learned that Theresienstadt was nothing like the end of the line and that survival depended on obtaining ‘protection’ from someone in the administration who could keep your name off the transportation lists. ‘The concept of “protection”’, he wrote in a memoir, ‘was of such paramount importance for all of us that it overshadowed any other considerations.’ Nevertheless, during the interval between the transports that departed each week Theresienstadt pulsated with life. ‘There was work and leisure, concerns with sanitation, housing, health care, child care, record keeping, construction, theater, concerts, lectures, all functioning as well as possible under the circumstances.’ But as soon as word came that another 1,000 to 2,000 people had to go within a few days the population could think of nothing except ‘protection’.

Troller coolly analysed the demoralizing effect of the struggle not to be transported. ‘In fear of death one forgets, slowly at first, but then with considerable speed, the rules of ethics, of decency, of helpfulness . . . At any and all costs we try to prevent the execution of the death sentence on us and our loved ones . . . To escape that fate one had to do everything to be included in the privileged group of the “protected”.’ It was his good fortune to have skills that qualified him for the staff of the Jewish administration. His boss in the architectural office shielded him from over twenty-five comb-outs. Troller was then able to do favors for even more influential ghetto figures and, ultimately, to get work from the SS. But he was still unable to protect his sister and her daughter, who were transported some six months after they had all arrived.

Psychological Corruption

Troller bewailed the system of drawing up lists and the ‘psychological corruption’ that affected individuals as they fought one another to avoid deportation. ‘With devilish baseness and cunning they [the SS] . . . put the burden of selection on the Jews themselves; to select their own co religionists, relatives, their friends. In the end this unbearable, desperate, cynical burden destroyed the community leaders who were forced to make the selections. The power of life and death forced on the Council of Elders was the main reason, the unavoidable force, behind the ever-increasing corruption in the ghetto . . .’ But he knew he was not innocent. ‘How can I forgive myself for having succumbed to egotistical, ruthless, incomprehensible actions towards my fellow sufferers whenever danger threatened . . .’

In their determination to maintain a semblance of normal life, especially for the children, and preserve their humanity, the Jews of Theresienstadt supported an array of educational and cultural initiatives. Helga Weiss started attending classes and moved into a children’s home where she studied Czech, geography, history and maths. The youths with whom she lived shared a plethora of books and went to shows performed in attics, the only free space available for such entertainments. ‘Yesterday I went to see The Kiss. It’s playing in Magdeburg, up in the loft. Even though it’s sung only to the accompaniment of a piano, with no curtains or costumes, the impression it makes couldn’t be greater even in the National Theatre.’

Captured Jewish women in Wesselényi Street, Budapest, Hungary, 20–22 October 1944. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

Morality and Social Barriers Decay

Adults enjoyed these distractions and found more earthy satisfactions. Troller wryly observed men sneaking into the coal cellar of the women’s barracks for prearranged liaisons with their wives, who emerged subsequently with ‘coal- blackened backsides’. Marital infidelity became commonplace as traditional moral standards wilted under the threat of random extinction. Despite hunger and unmitigated body odours men and women formed relationships, some for love and others for more functional purposes. ‘

On the one hand, there was spontaneous, true, eternal love; on the other, we were faced with the continual threat of separation, sex, lust, a pressure cooker atmosphere, quick, quick, without fancy phrases, before the next transport to the east stops us . . .’ For unmarried men like Troller, especially those who were privileged, there was no shortage of girlfriends. He and a friend constructed a kumbal, a cubby-hole, in which they could have privacy and entertain. There was a strict etiquette, though. A privileged worker who possessed a kumbal was expected to offer a gift to a visiting lady friend, such as food or cigarettes. But sometimes it was just a case of satisfying an urge. One afternoon Norbert’s companion Lilly turned up at his place and announced, ‘Nori – I need a fuck, come on.’

The Diary of Philipp Manes

The advent of thousands of elderly German Jews dampened the defiantly exuberant atmosphere in the ghetto cultivated by the younger Czechs, but enriched its cultural life. Among the newcomers in July 1942 were Philipp Manes and his wife. Manes was a sixty-seven-year-old veteran of the Great War and holder of the Iron Cross. He had run a fur agency in Berlin until he was put out of business by the Nazis and had spent the last few months working as a drill press operator in a factory.

In his diary he detailed the last hours in the home where he had lived with his wife and where they had raised four children. ‘It seemed inconceivable that we had to give up our entire estate, leave behind everything that we had acquired over the 37 years of our marriage . . . All our possessions were to be appropriated by strangers. They would go through all the drawers and cupboards and throw out things that were worthless to them – our cherished possessions. Inconceivable.’

But at 9.30 a.m. on the appointed morning, two Gestapo officers and two Jewish marshals came to escort them to a removal van that served as transport. Hours later they were disgorged at the Jewish Old People’s Home on Grosse Hamburgerstrasse along with dozens of other deportees. The next day they were told their property had been expropriated because they were guilty of ‘communist activity’. Manes, a staunch conservative, ‘accepted this humiliation in silence’. Their passports were stamped ‘evacuated from Berlin on 23 July’ and ‘with that our life as citizens of Germany ended’.

Business Card of Eduard Manes before entering Theresienstadt. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

The Shattering Truth of Theresienstadt

At three o’clock the next morning they were transported to the Anhalter Station. ‘We were cast out of the lives that we had made for ourselves, working for fifty years to see our business crowned with success . . . and now here we are with the few effects that we can carry with us in bags and backpacks.’

Along with their fellow, unwilling travelers they felt hopeful that Theresienstadt might live up to promise. What they actually found was shattering. First they were stripped of their valuables and their suitcases. For the rest of the summer Manes was condemned to wear the heavy winter clothes he had donned for the journey. They were led to a brick-walled stable and instructed to sleep on the ground. There was only a single water fountain and a disgusting communal latrine. Eventually they got their bedrolls and some personal items which they took with them to new quarters equipped with bunk beds. But this entailed the separation of men from women, and the planking for the bunks was riddled with bed bugs. Far from being a retirement home, Theresienstadt was a daily battle for life.

‘“Ghetto” signifies a renunciation of or a moratorium on morals’, Manes confided to his journal. ‘When hunger triumphed over civilized behavior and tore down all inhibitions, everyone gave themselves to one feeling and one goal: satiation at any price. Justice, security, property, and order simply yielded to this natural instinct. Those who have not witnessed how, at the end of the distribution of food, old people plunged into empty vats, scraping them with their spoons, even scraping the tables where the food was served with knives, looking for leftovers, cannot understand how quickly human dignity can be lost.’

Admiration for Czech Patriotism and Jewish Pride

After a few weeks Manes was asked by the administration to form an auxiliary to the Order Watch to assist disorientated or demented elderly Jews whose wanderings and distress caused discomfort to the rest of the populace. He used this position to start giving lectures, and before long was addressing audiences of a hundred. Eventually his talks evolved into a cultural program employing sixty-five men and women. The lectures, play readings and poetry recitals in German brought much comfort to the Berliners and Viennese Jews who were otherwise utterly adrift in the Czech-speaking environment.

Manes admired the Czech Jews for their patriotism and their Jewish pride, but he noted that they did not reciprocate this warmth. The two groups vied for power, contesting the distribution of privileges, work and rations. ‘On the one side there was abundance and the good life, which was not shared; on the other, endless hunger.’ Manes particularly resented the fact that Czech Jews were entitled to receive food parcels and seemed to get better rations from the kitchens. ‘It has to be said’, he admitted with a measure of self-reproach, ‘the Jewish Czech does not love us. He sees us only as Germans.’

Overcrowding Worsens

Even after the non-Jewish population was evicted from the town, the arrival of the German and Austrian Jews caused acute overcrowding. Combined with undernourishment due to the straitened food supply and bad sanitation, this sent the rate of mortality shooting upwards. In December 1941 just 48 Jews had died in the ghetto. Th e following March the number climbed to 259, but this was more or less in line with the increased population. In July 1942, there were on average 32 deaths per day, a total of 2,327 for August, and no fewer than 131 every day throughout September. According to Manes this was ‘the time of the great dying of the old and the very old who, with their broken, weak bodies, their worn, uprooted souls; and their unrealizable longing for their far-off children, could not resist even a mild illness.’

German soldiers drive arrested Jews into the municipal theatre. October 1944. By Bundesarchiv. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

In September 1942 the Germans ordered the deportation of elderly Jews, to bring down the average age of the population and re-balance the number who were working. Helga Weiss was horrified at the sight of these transports. ‘Altertransports. 10,000 sick, lame, dying, everyone over 65 . . . Why send defenseless people away? . . . can’t they let them die here in peace? After all, that’s what awaits them. The ghetto guards are shouting and running about beneath our windows; they’re closing off the street. Another group is on its way . . . Suitcases, stretchers, corpses. That’s how it goes, all week long. Corpses on the two-wheeled carts and the living on the hearses . . .’

The ‘Schleuse’ (sluice) at Bohusovice Station

In two months, 17,780 aged prisoners exited the ghetto via the ‘Schleuse’ (sluice), the exit ramp that led down to Bohusovice Station. By the end of the year the proportion of ghetto residents aged over sixty-five years had fallen from 45 to 33 per cent.

Seidl insisted that the council should be restructured to reflect the ratio of German, Austrian and Czech Jews. In October, Heinrich Stahl, one of the leaders of the Reichsvereinigung, was appointed deputy to Edelstein. At the start of 1943, by which time the population was equally divided between Czechs and Germans, Seidl ordered the formation of a triumvirate consisting of Edelstein, Paul Eppstein, a member of the Berlin Jewish leadership, and Josef Loewenherz, from Vienna. Not long afterwards Loewenherz dropped out of the picture and Seidl placed power in the hands of Eppstein, with the Viennese Benjamin Murmelstein as a deputy alongside Edelstein. For the next year and a half these men would determine who would live in Theresienstadt or depart on the transports.

DAVID CESARANI, OBE was Research Professor in History at Royal Holloway, Univ. of London and the award-winning author of Becoming Eichmann and Major Farran’s Hat. He was awarded the OBE for services to Holocaust Education and advising the British government on the establishment of Holocaust Memorial Day. He died in October 2015. He is the author of FINAL SOLUTION: The Fate of the Jews 1933-1949.

]]>http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/theresienstadt/feed/0The Iwo Jima Flag Raising: Part of What the U.S. Stands forhttp://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/iwo-jima-flag-raising/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/iwo-jima-flag-raising/#respondMon, 14 Nov 2016 16:21:17 +0000http://www.thehistoryreader.com/?p=4680Michael E. Haskew While the names of the Marines who were a part of the first Iwo Jima flag raising on Suribachi were relegated to the status of a historical footnote, those of the six men who raised the second…

While the names of the Marines who were a part of the first Iwo Jima flag raising on Suribachi were relegated to the status of a historical footnote, those of the six men who raised the second flag became household words. Sergeant Michael Strank, Pharmacist’s Mate 2nd Class John H. Bradley, Corporal Harlon H. Block, and Pfcs. Ira H. Hayes, Franklin R. Sousley, and Rene A. Gagnon will forever be remembered. Block, Sousley, and Strank did not survive the battle for Iwo Jima. Bradley, Gagnon, and Hayes became celebrities.

Since the enduring photograph captured the second flag raising, some observers declared that it had been staged. They were wrong. Rosenthal’s film was flown to Guam and developed. Associated Press editor John Bodkin knew it was something special and blurted, “Here’s one for all time!” He flashed the photo to the AP office in New York, and within 18 hours of the event it was in distribution.

The Iwo Jima Flag Raising Becomes an Enduring Symbol

Sculptor Felix de Weldon used Rosenthal’s photograph as the model for the sculpture at the U.S. Marine War Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, which was dedicated in 1954. The image has been reproduced on everything from postage stamps to coffee mugs and T-shirts.

The second Iwo Jima flag raising By Joe Rosenthal. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia.com

In 1999, a New York University survey named it number 68 on the list of the 100 best examples of journalism in the 20th century. It has become the symbol of the Marine Corps for all time. Joe Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at the age of 94, remembered the Marines and their great sacrifice as being much more significant than his photograph. He once said, “What I see behind the photo is what it took to get up those heights, the kind of devotion to their country that those young men had, and the sacrifices they made. I take some gratification in being a little part of what the U.S. stands for.”

Michael E. Haskew is the editor of WWII History Magazine and the former editor of World War II Magazine . He is the author of a number of books, including THE MARINES IN WORLD WAR II. The Sniper at War and Order of Battle. Haskew is also the editor of The World War II Desk Reference with the Eisenhower Center for American Studies. He lives in Hixson, Tennessee.